h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi - can I be a Time Traveller? I'm very diligent at trying not to kill my own grandfather...

Must make family reunions difficult.

Well, he's still alive, so nobody can complain. Plus, I don't want to kill him - he's a very nice person.

Ah, but then killing him in the present wouldn't be as cool.

Well...it's never cool to kill someone....especially not a nice grandparent....

But conceptually intriguing. That's what I meant. It's less conceptually intriguing to kill someone before they've died.

Which...err....dang it, I need to read that one book who explained how to talk about time travel grammar....

Oh yeah, the "willen-haven-be" thing...? I think you can find something about that in "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe". I would be more worried about killing myself in the past than my grandfather. But then again, while less comfusing, killing myself in the future would probably be worse because I would know it was going to happen, and also when and where.

So? You can change reality and alter the facts of the present. Once you can do that, it's not impossible to change the events of the timeline, as long as you never think of it as "changing the past."

So kill yourself, collect the insurance, and then prevent it from happening.

Yes, you may be able to 'go back into the past'

But you can't kill your grandfather, or grandmother, etc.